The invention relates to a motor-driven, adjustable supporting device for the upholstery of seating and/or reclining furniture, e.g. of a mattress or of a bed, of the type having jointedly connected parts and a drive for moving the parts relative to each other.
Supporting devices of this type are generally known in the form of lath grids. Thus a lath grid is known, by way of example, through DE 195 42 321 A1, said lath grid having several supporting parts jointedly connected to one another for the support of a mattress over its surface which are pivotable relative to one another by drive means. In the known lath grid the drive means are formed by an adjustment drive whose drive housing is disposed below the actual lath grid.
A disadvantage of this known lath grid consists of the fact that it makes a bulky, and thus visually unattractive, impression due to the disposition of the relatively space-consuming adjustment drive.
A further disadvantage consists of the fact that the lath grid with the adjustment drive has a significant height. This makes the transport and handling of the lath grid more difficult.
From EP 0 884 001 A1 a similar lath grid is known in which the adjustment drive is also disposed below the actual lath grid. The same disadvantages follow as in the lath grid mentioned previously.
From EP 0 935 937 A1 a lath grid of the type in question is known, said lath grid having a first supporting part and a second supporting part for the support of a mattress over its surface wherein the first supporting part and the second supporting part are jointedly connected to one another and are pivotable relative to one another by a drive means. In order to fashion the lath grid visually more advantageously in the case of the lath grid known from this publication, the drive means are formed by direct-drive motors integrated into pivoted shafts, said direct-drive motors being disposed in the framework of the lath grid. In this way the lath grid is fashioned visually advantageously. It is, however, disadvantageous that the direct-drive motors used are time-consuming in construction and thus expensive to manufacture. This applies in particular when high adjustment forces must be applied and the direct-drive motors must be dimensioned accordingly.
An object of the invention is to specify a supporting device of the type having jointedly connected support parts and which is fashioned visually advantageously and which is simply and cost-effectively manufacturable.
This object is realized by the teachings of the invention set forth below.
A basic concept of the teaching according to the invention consists in disposing the drive so that it does not project over the side bars of the first supporting device, or does so only negligibly.
For this, the invention provides that a drive element of the drive is disposed between an upper limiting plane and a lower limiting plane of the first supporting device.
In this way the drive in the case of a supporting device formed as a lath grid is disposed directly below the laths and visually appears in the background so that the lath grid is fashioned in an optically advantageous manner.
Moreover, through the use of a linear-motion drive the construction of the supporting device according to the invention is simplified and thus more cost-effectively structured.
A particular advantage of the teaching according to the invention consists of the fact that through the disposition, according to the invention, of the drive between horizontal limiting planes of the first supporting device, and thus of the base body of the supporting device, the height of the supporting device in comparison to traditional, non-adjustable supporting devices is not increased, or is increased only negligibly. Thus the supporting device according to the invention is also usable in the case of pieces of filigreed furniture without their visual impression being disadvantageously affected.
Due to the small height of the supporting device with the drive, the teaching according to the invention also makes possible for the first time the integration of the lath grid with a mattress to form one unit. Such an integration is not possible in the case of motor-driven, adjustable supporting devices according to the state of the art due to their resulting height.
The supporting device according to the invention is robust in construction, long-lived, and usable in many ways.
In principle the advantages achieved with the teaching according to the invention are substantially retained if the drive projects negligibly over the first supporting device on the side opposite the upholstery. A particularly advantageous extension of the teaching according to the invention provides however that the drive is disposed essentially completely between the upper limiting plane and the lower limiting plane of the first supporting device. In this embodiment the linear-motion drive does not increase the height of the lath grid.
Another particularly advantageous extension of the teaching according to the invention consists of at least one of the side bars being formed as a hollow profile and the drive being accommodated in the hollow profile. In this embodiment the drive is almost completely covered and thus barely visible.
Another embodiment according to the invention provides that the drive is removably connected to the first supporting device, in particular to one of the side bars. This increases the ease of maintenance of the supporting device according to the invention since, by way of example, a defective drive is replaceable in a simple manner.
The drive is expediently disposed between lateral limiting planes of the first supporting device. In this embodiment the drive also does not project laterally over the supporting device and is thus completely accommodated within its limits.
In the embodiments in which the drive is not accommodated in one of the side bars of the first supporting device, the drive can be accommodated in a housing as another embodiment provides. In this way the drive is protected against damage in handling or transport of the supporting device.
The housing can in the case of the aforementioned embodiments be held on a separated holding part connected to the first supporting device. Expediently the housing is however connected to one of the side bars and/or to a cross bar of the first supporting device. This simplifies the fastening of the housing and simplifies construction.
In principle it is sufficient that a single drive is disposed in each housing. According to the particular requirements however, two drives can be disposed in the housing in such a way that a double drive is formed. In such an embodiment, by way of example, one linear-motion drive can serve for pivoting a leg-supporting device and the other for pivoting an upper body-supporting device.
According to another embodiment the supporting part according to the invention has two side bars spaced relative to one another in the transverse direction of the supporting device, where each side bar is assigned to a housing in which at least one drive is accommodated.
Advantageously the output element of the drive is essentially movable in the longitudinal direction of the supporting device. In this way only a simple pivoting mechanism is required for pivoting a supporting part, by way of example a simple pivoting lever.
An extraordinarily advantageous extension of the teaching according to the invention provides that the drive is a linear-motion drive. Linear-motion drives are available as simple and cost-effective standard components. Moreover, high forces can be applied with linear-motion drives so that an adjustment of the supporting device is also possible under high load without additional efforts.
Expediently in the case of the aforementioned embodiments the output element of the linear-motion drive is a spindle nut which is held, secure against rotation and movable in the screw direction, on a threaded spindle rotatably drivable by the electric motor, where the spindle nut stands in functional connection to a lever mechanism for pivoting at least one of the supporting parts relative to the first supporting part. An arrangement of this type is simple and robust in construction.
Another advantageous extension of the teaching according to the invention provides that the threaded spindle is disposed essentially parallel to the drive shaft of the electric motor and stands in driving connection to it via gearing. In this way the space requirement of the linear-motion drive in the direction of the threaded spindle is reduced. By way of example, the drive shaft and the threaded spindle can be disposed over one another or next to one another.
In principle it is sufficient if the supporting device according to the invention consists of two supporting parts adjustable relative to one another. In the case of this embodiment the possibility for adjustment then consists, by way of example, of adjusting the inclination of a bed in the area of the upper body of a person lying on the bed. It is however advantageous if the supporting device has more than two supporting parts. For this, an embodiment provides that the first supporting part is formed by a central supporting part and the second supporting part by an upper body-supporting part and that a leg-supporting part is provided which is connected, jointedly and pivotably about a pivot axis parallel to the pivot axis of the upper body-supporting part, to the central supporting part on its side opposite its upper body-supporting part. In the case of this embodiment not only the inclination of the upper body-supporting part relative to the central supporting part but rather also the inclination of the leg-supporting part relative to the central supporting part is adjustable. In this way the adjustment possibilities are extended so that the adaptation of the supporting device to the seating or reclining position of a person resting on the mattress supported with the supporting device is improved.
An extension of the aforementioned embodiment provides that a head-supporting part is provided which is connected, jointedly and pivotably about a pivot axis essentially parallel to the pivot axis of the upper body-supporting part, to the upper body-supporting part on its side opposite its central supporting part. Thereby an adjustment of the supporting device in the head area is made possible.
Another advantageous extension of the aforementioned embodiment provides that a calf-supporting part is provided which is connected, jointedly and pivotably about a pivot axis essentially parallel to the pivot axis of the leg-supporting part, to the leg-supporting part on its side opposite the central supporting part. In this embodiment an adjustment of the supporting device in the calf area is made possible in addition.
The supporting device can be formed as a lath grid as a further embodiment provides.
Seating or reclining furniture with a supporting device according to the invention is specified further below.
In the following the invention is explained in more detail with the aid of the accompanying drawings in which various embodiments are represented.
Relative terms such as lengthwise, transverse, up, down, left, right are for convenience only and are not intended to be limiting.